


Quirk

by Aeriel



Category: Sweeney Todd - Sondheim/Wheeler
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-08-06
Updated: 2009-08-06
Packaged: 2018-01-11 16:26:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1175244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aeriel/pseuds/Aeriel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anthony's a little different from other sailors</p>
            </blockquote>





	Quirk

**Author's Note:**

> Reposting old LJ fic. Written for the theme three thousand five hundred miles away

Hope, the sailors on board the Bountiful will tell you, is the name of their youngest recruit. It is an absurdly appropriate name for the boy- something straight out of those serials he buries his nose in during his every free moment.   
  
They never cease mocking him for this, of course. When the other men sit at table passing ale and tales of what that one woman in Cathay could do with her tongue, Hope is in the corner reading the Bell brothers or Dickens or Thackeray.   
  
When they catch him copying over Lord Byron's poetry, the captain decides he has to talk to this boy.  
  
"I've done nothing wrong," Hope states the minute the cabin door closes.  
  
"Never said you had, lad, never said you had. But I did wonder if you might be happier in another vocation. The boys-"  
  
"They don't bother me," he interrupts. The captain raises his eyebrows, and Hope, to his credit, looks mortified. "Sorry, sir, I didn't mean to-"  
  
"I'll accept your apology, Hope, provided you continue to work as hard as you've been doing since you came on board. No matter what the boys say, there's nothing wrong with your work ethic."  
  
Hope beams, and the captain knows better to question why a lad with intellectual leanings would choose to do hard labor hundreds of leagues away from home.   
  
Hope, the sailors on the Bountiful will tell you, is full of silly fancies and more than a bit mad. But when he is promoted, none of them can find a reason to object. 


End file.
